The Selfless Basket ball girl
by Itstartwithasmile
Summary: AU College. One-shot. What if Maura meets Jane at a playground ? What if Jane's encounters with Hoyt happened at that time ? (i just had these scenes in mind and didn't know what to do about them, so here they are.)


**AU College.**

They were in a park. There was a playground and some bleachers. It was saturday afternoon and all the kids were outside playing sports. Some were running, some were playing soccer on the grass when others were yelling and engaged in a basket ball game. The latter was a recurrency in this field. The teenagers of the neighbourhood would gather here and play until nightfall.

But Maura wasn't from that neighbourhood. She was an uptown girl, as they say. But she liked to blend in. Well at first, she was forced to. Her teacher recommanded her to mix with other students for her degree in psychology. Maura was a lonesome. She could playfully chat with anyone but that wouldn't mean she had a deeper connection with any of these people. Add that to the fact that she had the tendency to say random scientific fact about anything at any opportunity, this didn't make her the most popular kid of the school. Maura didn't mind though. She was used to being alone. She had developped her independance at a very young age when her parents left her alone at home to pursue their career. It was her life.

Well, it used to be.

Before Jane.

Before the incident.

The first time Maura came accross the players, it was by pure accident. She was running through the park, no itinary in head. She stopped at a bench to catch up her breath and look down the hill. She saw the playground and a group of young having fun. Curiosity and her teacher words echoing in her mind, she approached the field. Then she noticed the bleachers and without more thoughts, she was sitting in the highest row. Doing something this impulsive, it made her all giddy. Then she focused her attention on the game. She tried to remember the rules, she had read it somewhere, at a random time. But slowly, she got sidetracked by this lean silhouette. Dark curly hair tied up in a ponytail, flying in the wind, tan skin on sculp muscles, and a joy that seems irremediably fixed on her structured face. Even from that distance, Maura could saw that the girl - the only one playing - was all angles and long bones. And Maura had a thing for long bones.

Soon it became a thing, for her to sit in the bleachers and watched the game. She would come once per week. Sometimes she would study while listening to the noise of the game, sometimes she would watch it. It took four sessions to get noticed. It wasn't like Maura came for it specifically, but when the girl took a break and came climbing all the bleachers, right to her, Maura started to feel nervous. A little excited but at the limit of panicking. She always knew she was kind of awkward, socially speaking, so all she could think of, while this athletic girl made the effort to come to her, was to try to have a normal conversation with her and not blew it all off.

And it appeared that she did just fine. Their first conversation were a little strange, funny enough. Maure was trying to keep her geeking at bay and Jane would laugh at it when the blonde would burst into one of her usual rant.

"You are so weird !"

It didn't felt like the custumary insult Maura was used to. It was almost like she found it... good. Cool perhaps ? Maura couldn't put her finger on it, but the feeling was good. All the feeling concerning Jane was good. She made her feel like she belong. And that, was the most precious thing Maura ever had.

Their friendship grew pretty strong with time. And six month after their first meeting, they were inseperable.

And then, the incident happened.

One day, Jane told her the story, of what happened that night. She had kept it all inside of her, until that moment. Never wanting to talk about it before. Maura had her suspicion about the cause of that behaviour, being a psychology student. But, as Jane's friend, she had just waited for her to open up. To find the right time to do so. That was what friend do, right ?

So when that time came, Jane told her everything.

_She came back to school late, to see Korsak because she forgot to hand him over some papers for her asignment. She was calling him to come and meet her when she saw two silhouettes in the dark. As they pass under a streetlight near a building, Jane recognize a girl from one of her classes and that creepy biology teacher. Mr Hoyt. That vision buggered her out. But what truely made her think that something was really off, was his hand on her neck. Jane halted her tracks and watched them enter the building. It was like a storage room, nobody went into it. Jane had still her own teacher on the phone who was talking to her but she wasn't listening anymore. She told hime what she just saw, and her feet leaded her on that door. She opened it. She wasn't even in there for a second when she heard a scream. _

Jane had to stop at this point in her telling. She had felt the urge to collect herself, like preparing herself for what's going next. Maura saw her behaviour change. She went from tired to stress out, anxious and a mix of anger and fear. All of these emotions showing somewhat in her body language, to be read by Maura's perceptive eyes. The blonde truely admired her. Then, the broken girl continued.

_She didn't hear Korsak answer and questions about what was happening. She clung her phone in her hand, down at her side. _

"_No ! Please ! No ! Help me ! Please ! No !"_

_Because if she ever went to scream for help, she would like someone to come, Jane made a step forward. _

_Instead of calling Korsak, or the cops for that matters, she took one step at a time. Slowly. Her heart bounding forceful in her chest. She had no weapon, nothing to hold onto it and protect her, or the girl. But she continued her walk. At the end of that dark corridor, she saw a little room in dim light. She carefully picked an eye. She saw her, laying on the floor, tape on her mouth. Her eyes. Wide of fear. Terror. She still saw her eyes when she closed her own._

_Then the hit. All went black. _

Jane shuddered.

"You don't have to... if you doesn't want to.." Maura whispered. She didn't know if she could touch her friend, to tell her that she was here, with her, that everything was okay. But she felt like the any movement might spooked Jane.

"Nah. I have to let it out. At least one time... i have to do this." She trembled. She wanted to clench her hand into fist but couldn't. Too painful. Even her old control trick was out of the question. She felt desperate.

Maura saw her agitated her fingers and her hand flew itself to cover lightly Jane's forearm. The dark haired girl lifted her gaze and smiled a little. She pursued.

_She came back to conciousness with a sheer bolt of pain. Both plain into her hands, right in the middle. But it felt like all of her arms were on fire. She screamed loudly. She looked at it and thought she was hallucinating. Two little knife was holding her, pinned to the floor. _

_She could hear someone cried at her sides. The other girl. _

_She went to look at her when she felt something laying slowing on top of her. She felt the hard cold steel against the skin of her neck. And she saw those eyes. Ominous. His smile. Sickening. She shuddered. She wanted to puke. He revulsed her. Her mind was focus on him, forgetting the hot fire of her pain. _

_She was scared._

Still are.

_He was slurring these words. Promises. _

_Then a shout. He was off of her in a second. Korsak came into view. He had a bat in his hand. Hoyt was laying next to her, inconcious, his head bleeding. _

"_Oh boy. Jane. It's okay. It's over."_

Maura had lunged herself in a hug, in the middle of the story. She held Jane by the shoulders, as the brunette put her head in the crock of the blonde neck. She wanted to protect her, to be a shield against all of these horrible things. Maure knew that it was impossible, but in doing so, she hoped that she could show Jane that she was here, with her and that nothing she had just told her had change anything in their relationship. She will stay at her side. As long as she wanted her to.

[...]

Maura was sitting at her usual place, in the bleachers, taking some notes from a book for her study. By her side, was laying Jane. She was wearing that big hoodie of hers, with that giant kangaroo pocket in the middle. She hid her hands there. Her head was resting on her backpack. It was bothering Maura. She sighed for the tenth times and tried to focus on her reading. But failed.

"What with all the sighing, Maura ?"

She turned her head towards Jane. She had her eyes closed. Maura put her book beside her.

"You are going to have your neck sore by laying like that. You could... lay... over here."

The last words had the effect to make her open her eyes and rise an eyebrow. Jane looked at the blush creeped on Maura's face. This made her smile.

"Ok."

Jane lifted her head and Maura took the cue to take the bag and put it on the other side of herself. And before she had the time to finish her actions, Maura felt a head on her lap. Jane was nesting carelessly, getting confortable. She had close her eyes again. Maura smiled at her, then retrieved her book and resumed her lesson.

She lost track of time when suddenly there was a ruckus from the game below. Apparently it was the end of the game and Jane's team didn't win. They could hear Frankie saying :

"It's not my fault if our best player is up there getting her tan done !"

"You fucking lost ?! Do I really have to go down there to defend the Rizzoli honor ?" Jane yelled back, sitting right up.

It was a common thing that the Rizzoli sibling were the best players out there. They were admired and the ones to beat.

"Well, be my guest !" Frankie shout while showing with his hands the playground. Then suddenly his eyes went wide and he stopped.

"You asshole !"

Jane's angry retorts didn't take long.

"I'm sorry !" He told her nonetheless.

"Whatever." She mumbled.

She was all lock up again, sitting with her shoulders slumped, her face looking down, her hands always hidden. But Maura could tell that Jane had balled them into fist. She was hurt for her, with her. It was a low blow and Frankie knew it. He resumed his game with the others while his sister stayed mad at him. Maura wanted to do something. But what could she possibly do to help her friend ?

"He didn't meant it."

"I know."

They went silent again. Maura tried to say something else, but nothing right came into her mind. So she went back to her book. Jane always used to make fun of her for that habit. A "bookworm" she called her. From others, it used to bother her. From her, it was almost like an endearment term. And she didn't know if she liked it or not. Maura was so focus on her own thoughts that she nearly missed the shout.

"Look out !"

She lifted her head just in time to see Jane jump in front of her and box the ball away from her. The scream that escaped her body then wasn't human.

Maura was petrified by it.

Jane cowered herself. She was about to loose balance when Maura snapped out of her transe and abruptly stood up and catch her in her arms.

"Oh my god ! Jane !"

They fell on their knees as Jane was still screaming. Tears was streaming down on her cheeks. She couldn't catch her breath. She was about to loose conciousness, Maura could felt it.

"Breathe. I've got you. Just breathe."

But she collapsed.


End file.
